Jilted
I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley for an unbiased review.I really dug this book. Like most of Sawyer Bennett's lighter stuff, this one was sexy and fun - with a really great HEA. In addition, Jilted also gave a little more depth to the two leads, more than I was expecting.
Eden left her small town to make it big. Halfway through college she was recruited to be a model, then an actress, and she hadn't looked back. At least not until the very public fight with her very public boyfriend at the opening of his latest movie. Since their engagement was very much off, she decided to take some time to regroup, and where better than the Goodnight family home back in Newberry, Georgia.
Coop was the guy she left behind. They gave their long-distance relationship a short trial run, but he knew it would never work, so they broke it off and he knew she'd be the one he'd always regret. But not getting caught up in that, he had to keep things going back at home. He finished college and started to help his father with their landscaping business. Cooper is as entrenched in Newberry as Eden has pushed away from it.
When she arrives and finds out that there are some complications with her living situation and Coop is seemingly to blame, sparks fly. She's caught completely off-guard because the town is decidedly icy towards her, Coop's latest fling is making trouble, and Eden herself is having some unwelcome thoughts about rebounding with her first true love.
It sounds like a lot of second-chance books you may have read before, but trust me, it isn't. The characters are three-dimensional, the situations are complex, and the way the HEA is resolved isn't just, "the girl quits and stays with the guy" easy.
I loved it, and I give it five "shirtless guys on a riding mower" stars.